Describe the functions of storage location control in Warehouse Management
. Set up storage location control . Use storage location references Business Example Your company wants to make sure that goods receipts are only available to sales once the putaway is complete. Purpose of Storage Location Control Generally, you can use the storage location control function if Inventory Management for your materials is in several storage locations, for example because the stocks have different owners. However, you can also use a storage location to map processes more exactly as part of storage location control, even without a separate Inventory Management function. The goal is either to control storage location to storage location posting changes, which are necessary in goods receipt and goods issue processes regardless of the situation, or to steer stocks in certain storage locations to certain storage types and to pick stock from specific storage types. Storage location control can, for example, be used to mark goods receipts as stock in a separate storage location until such time as the putaway is completed in Warehouse Management on confirmation of the transfer order. This is particularly advantageous for goods receipts for purchase orders, work orders, and other activities because it means that even those who do not have any access to the stock overview in Warehouse Management can always see which (partial) stocks they can access. For example, a worker who calls the storage location stocks from the sales order sees stock in the goods receipt area or stock en route to the destination storage type as .unrestricted use. stock, even though it cannot be removed from storage immediately.
In figure 31, a storage location (0220) is created for the sole purpose of goods receipt postings. Storage location 0120, generally used for picking, is flagged as a standard storage location in Customizing for Warehouse Management. Putaway storage location 0220 is not transferred to the transfer requirement created as a result of the goods receipt posting because the stock should be assigned to storage location 0120, not storage location 0220, on completion of the putaway. Therefore when the transfer order is created for the putaway, the system fills the document field Storage location (empty in the transfer requirement) with the key of the standard storage location 0120. The posting change from 0220 to 0120 occurs either in the course of the transfer order confirmation or in a separate step on completion of the putaway. This means that for the duration of the putaway process, the stock for putaway is either not visible at all or clearly visible as stock that cannot be picked, depending on the configuration of the availability check. You can set up a similar scenario for production supply. Note: If you want to use Warehouse Management for refilling staging containers as part of the KANBAN solution in production control (PP-KANBAN), then storage location control is required because the KANBAN staging storage location is always different from theWarehouse Management source storage location.
Storage Location Reference If you want to put away stock from a particular storage location into a certain storage type and then pick the stock from the same storage type, you can work with a storage location reference. You define this indicator in Customizing for Warehouse Management, assign it to a plant / storage location / warehouse number combination, and then use it to influence the search for a putaway or picking storage type.
If you use Handling Unit Management, you can use the storage location reference if packaged and unpackaged stocks are stored in the same warehouse number. Note: If Handling Unit Management is in use, the inventory for packaged stocks has to be managed in its own specially-marked storage location. The storage location reference therefore allows you to split storage location stocks at storage type level. Figure 32: Storage location reference: splitting stock at storage type level